“Inspired Innovations: A Celebration of Shaker Ingenuity,” currently being presented at the New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA) to April 11 in the McKernan Gallery, features beautifully handcrafted furniture, inventions and artifacts from the Shaker community. Talks with experts on Shaker living will be conducted in a symposium, “The Shakers and the World: The Past Meets the Present,” on January 25, as well as during the March 11 and April 8 Art Happy Hour from 6 to 7 pm.
Curated by West Hartford, Conn., Shaker scholar and collector Stephen Miller, “Inspired Innovations: A Celebration of Shaker Ingenuity” seeks to raise awareness about the Shakers, who have successfully faced more than 220 years of challenges. Emphasis is placed on the community that existed in Enfield, Conn., from 1790 to 1917.
The Shaker collection includes 350 to 400 pieces spanning from approximately 1800 to 2009, in addition to examples of their flower seeds, foods, herbs and woodenwares industry. The gallery is arranged into 12 Zones of Innovation †garden seed, medicinal herbs, food products, woodenwares, basketry, cooperage, textiles, chair industry, fancy goods, health and sanitation, bed room and inventions. Three rooms resembling traditional Shaker quarters †the retiring (bed) room, infirmary and textile production room †house the work in the museum. They are painted traditional Shaker colors to create an atmosphere conducive to the Shaker villages.
The Shakers were originally called “shaking Quakers,” because of the eccentric way in which they worshiped God through spontaneous dance and movement. “Shaking Quakers” was eventually shortened to Shakers. Members of the group chose to give up their families, property and worldly ties in order to experience the peaceable nature of Christ’s kingdom. They lived together in holy families, which placed emphasize on communal living, celibacy and gender equality. The Shaker motto, “Put your hands to work and your heart to God,” inspired them to invent hundreds of devices that cut down on labor, such as clothespins and the circular saw.
The Shakers came to be known for their brilliant craftsmanship in architecture and furniture. Today, the Shakers continue to be appreciated for their immense contributions to American crafts and architecture through exhibits like this one.
The January 25 symposium will feature talks with Dr Scott T. Swank on “Shaker Innovations in the Use of Space †Inside and Out.” Swank is executive director of the Heritage Plantation, Sandwich, Mass., and author of Arts of the Pennsylvania Germans and Shaker Life, Art and Architecture: Hands to Work, Hearts to God , an in-depth study of the Canterbury community he helped to restore; Dr Glendyne Werglund on “O Sisters ain’t you happy,” a discussion on how women fit into the Shaker world. Werglund has written three books on Shaker studies: One Shaker Life: Isaac Newton Youngs, 1793‱865, Visiting the Shakers: 1778‱849 and Sisters of the Faith ; and Christian Goodwillie on “How Are the Shakers Relevant To Us?” Goodwillie is curator of special collections, Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y. He has published Shaker Songs; Gather Up the Fragments: The Andrews Shaker Collection, with M. Stephen Miller, Handled With Care: The Function of Form in Shaker Craft , and with Jane Crosswaite, Millennial Praises.
The symposium will take place from 10 am from 3 pm. Cost is $30 members; $40 nonmembers and lunch is included (snow date is February 1). For reservations, contact Heather Whitehouse at whitehouseh@nbmaa.org or 860-229-0257, extension 203.
Art Happy Hour on March, 11 and 8 will feature “The Market for Shaker Furniture and Furnishings” by John Keith Russell, a dealer in Shaker and other artifacts, and “Myths and Legends Surrounding the Shakers” by Stephen J. Paterwic, a leading historian of the Shaker movement. A special guided one-hour exhibition tour with curator Miller on March 9 and March 24 at 10 am is free with general admission.
The museum is at 56 Lexington Street. For information, www.nbmaa.org or 860-229-0257.
